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Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

12 Colleges
$14,054 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$99,011 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Graduate Certificate School for You

In 2020-2021, nursing students earned 6,634 degrees and certificates from an Illinois school, making the subject the 2nd in the state.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Alternatively, you may choose a trade school that prepares you to enter the workforce with knowledge in a specific field.

The Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois ranking is one of many tools that Grad Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. This report analyzed 12 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate programs for nursing students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois

Check out the nursing graduate certificate programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Top 10 Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Illinois State University the best value school in Illinois for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the midsize suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public college with a very large student population.

Illinois State graduate students pay an average of $9,773 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Out of the 12 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the large suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public school with a large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SIUE are $9,316 per year.

Full Nursing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing is a small private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Peoria.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing are $8,740 a year.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of St Francis. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. Located in the suburb of Joliet, University of Saint Francis is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at University of Saint Francis are $13,839 per year.

University of Saint Francis not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #3 on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list.

Full Nursing at University of St Francis Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Chamberlain University - Illinois. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. Located in the large suburb of Addison, Chamberlain - Illinois is a private for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Chamberlain - Illinois are $14,090 per year.

Full Nursing at Chamberlain University - Illinois Report

#6

Lewis University

Romeoville, IL

Lewis University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. Located in the large suburb of Romeoville, Lewis is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Lewis are $14,960 per year.

Read full report on Nursing at Lewis University

#7

Bradley University

Peoria, IL

Bradley University landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate nursing programs. Bradley is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Peoria.

Bradley graduate students pay an average of $17,400 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Bradley also did well on our Best Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read full report on Nursing at Bradley University

#8

Olivet Nazarene University

Bourbonnais, IL

With a ranking of #8, Olivet Nazarene University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for nursing students working on their graduate certificate. Olivet Nazarene is a small private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Bourbonnais.

Olivet Nazarene graduate students pay an average of $12,190 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Olivet Nazarene is ranked #4 for overall quality for nursing in Illinois.

Full Nursing at Olivet Nazarene University Report

#9

North Park University

Chicago, IL

North Park University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #9 on the list. North Park is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at North Park are $14,184 per year.

Read full report on Nursing at North Park University

Loyola University Chicago came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Nursing Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois ranking. Loyola Chicago is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.

Loyola Chicago graduate students pay an average of $19,894 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 1,113
Ohio 2,563
Indiana 1,819
Wisconsin 972

One of 29 majors within the area of study, nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major Annual Graduates
Medicine 28,629
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions 24,774
Public Health 19,473
Health & Medical Administrative Services 17,335
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences 16,952

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 12 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Aleksahgabrielle.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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